History = option 1

Me = mix of both. I hit all escorts straight away and flee for a few minutes.

Im thinking ok large slow convoy - you have 4 maybe 5 fish on a evening attack run.
I might try and slam some of the screening (outside) merchants to open the gap a bit. Depending on the sucess of escape and evasion, then shadow, reload and go for a second attack in the am. Usually some decent large targets in the center. 4 escorts can pin you down if your not carfull, in calm seas even.

Personally, I usually end up doing option 3.

- sneak in past the leading escort, fire at two or three merchants, Submerge to reload, all torpedos miss and the escorts jump all over me. -

but still trying for option 1

Yes, I like option 3 also. What you know is comforting. Good choice.

History always repeats itself. :D

Bump :D

I'm for historical accuracy, too -- Option 1, and if it's early war, on the surface. Shooting first at the farther merchants, then the nearer, so your first 4 eels hit at almost the same time. Turn, fire stern torp, dive and dodge wabos as needed. Happy Days.:cool:

:o Ever tried to kill an escort with manual shooting?

You will need not just one but probably a salvo of three torpedoes. And if more than one escort go for you, you might kill one but be held down at 200 metres until the convoy is really, really far away. If you are playing at 100% realism, simply forget about that. Real life Kaleuns? be sure they would not go around wasting 10.000 Deutsche Mark torpedoes in rows of three against sloops only to find themselves hunted for hours while teh convoy steams away. If the escorts did not get them, Onkel Karl (Dönitz) would ensure their next assignement is to patrol the east front in underwear :stare:

the only times i have managed to take out an escort...

i was stalking a convoy at night and the escort broke off to the side of the convoy while zig zagging, he went out a few KMs and then returned to the convoy in a straight line. as he was travelling in this straight line, i fired a salvo of 2 steamers at him.. they both hit just below the command deck and resulted in an impressive explosion. I repeated this tactic to kill the two remaining escorts, but it took me about 3 or 4 days worth of stalking and repositioning, it consumed a lot of fuel, and cost me 6 torpedoes that could have been better used against the tankers.

the second time was fairly recently, i ran across a huge convoy escorted by only 2 corvettes. i ignored the escorts and got past them undetected and managed to sink a whale factory ship, and a large tanker. i damaged a medium cargo ship, dove deep and let the convoy pass overhead. both corvettes responded and depth charged overhead for a whie then left. i surfeced some time later to finish off the straggling and damaged medium cargo ship with my deck gun. Several rounds into the beating one of the corvettes was returning. i turned my deck gun on the flower corvette and estimated the range to be about 8,000 meters through the UZO and sent 4 shells after him. i watched through the UZO and 3 shells fell short, the 4th shell landed right on his gun and blew it off. i crashed down to 100 meters and let the flower corvette pound the sea for a few minutes, when he was headed away i blew the ballast and surfaced abotu 2500 meters astern of him and finished him off with the deck gun with surprising ease.

i can assure you though, regardless of the year of the war (especailly late in the war when radar is capable of picking up a raised periscope) it is virtually impossible to take out a dedicated escort when playing with any kind of respectable realism.

I would take on a escort if the game didn't have that stupid bug that even if you shoot a DD's arse off it still steams at you with 35 knts... :nope:


But to be frank - I go for it anyway (in R/L that is), because one lost warship is harder to replace than 10 merchants :yep:
Especially when I am out in the Atlantic - the thought behind it is simple - I take out an escort, another wolf might take out one more and quickly the rest of my brethren closer to home can take on the whole convoy without fear

Shadow the convoy until dark. Then move in for a night surface attack. Under callm sea's, (perfect sonar conditions), submerging should be avoided if possible. However if destroyer Bow angle is 0, with a big frothy white beard, its time to pull the plug and head for the cellar.

Get around in front and go for the merchies. I avoid taking donw escorts unless there is no choice and prefer to get the job done on the merchies and escape and evade afterwards.

The cargo carriers are your priority....go for the guards only if you've no choice (generally survival/self defence) :arrgh!: